Curriculum reform 2016

Curriculum reform 2016

Renewal of the core curriculum for pre-primary and basic education

The Curriculum is basically an altered version of the Core Curriculum that The Finnish National Board of Education introduced in 2014, and the municipalities have drawn up their local curricula based on the national framework.

The National Core Curriculum provides a uniform foundation for local curricula, thus enhancing equality in education throughout the country. The curricula of each municipality and school steer instruction and schoolwork in more detail, taking local needs and perspectives into consideration.

Goal

The new curriculum’s goal is to secure the necessary knowledge and skills as well as to encourage learning. The curriculum reform aims at ensuring that the knowledge and skills of Finnish children and youths will remain strong in the future, both in national contexts as well as international.

Some of the key goals of the reform include enhancing pupil participation, increasing the meaningfulness of study and making it possible for each and every pupil to experience success. Children and youths are guided in assuming more responsibility for their schoolwork and given more support in their studies. The pupils set goals, solve problems and assess their learning based on set targets.

Learning outside the classroom and by using technology

One particular aim of the reform was to develop the learning environments and work methods used in basic education. A learning environment should be secure, and it should inspire learning. Other learning environments such as museums, businesses and nature, should be used. Games and other virtual environments should also be recognized as learning environments. Technology plays an increasingly significant role in everyday school routines, thus allowing pupils to be more easily involved in the development and selection of their own learning environments